Michael Kenna Dark Edges

[mporter012]

Many of Michael Kenna's images have darkened edges. How is he making this happen!?

Here are some examples:Dead Link Removed

 

[wildbill]

he uses a holga.
burn in the corners with a round dodging tool if you want or buy a $20 crappy camera.

 

[brian steinberger]

This is a characteristic of a Holga camera.. vignetting in the corners. He may have burned additionally to make them darker.

 

[Joe VanCleave]

Here's an example from my recently acquired Holga 120GFN, this one using a glass lens but still exhibiting that classic off-axis vignetting. This is a scan of a mini-lab print, spots of dust are from my scanner.

~Joe


Garage001a by jvcabacus, on Flickr

 

[jovo]

Kenna may use a Holga, but his principal camera is a Hasselblad. Rolfe Horn was his printer for a while, and Horn's explanation for some of his own printing is revealing of what one sees in a Kenna print. See the section on technique here: Dead Link Removed

 

[nwilkins]

Many of Michael Kenna's images have darkened edges. How is he making this happen!?

Here are some examples:Dead Link Removed

If you use a Holga or Diana or any of those other inexpensive plastic cameras, you will get darkening on the edges (this is called vignetting). It happens when the lens on the camera does not project an image that is big enough to fit on the film. The size of the image a lens projects is referred to as the covering power of the lens.

However, Michael Kenna, like many (I almost said "all" but that's not true) great black and white film photographers, is a master of printing, so whenever you see one of his images you can be sure he has manipulated it in the printing stage to make the picture look exactly how he wants it to look. The two most basic forms of printing manipulation are dodging (witholding light from the paper so that area of the print becomes lighter) and burning (adding extra light to the paper so that area becomes darker). If you want to know more about it there are many great books out there, including a very in depth book by Ansel Adams called "The Print".


If you want to see what is possible with this kind of creative manipulationlook at this page (Rolfe Horn is a former assistant of Michael Kenna). The results of masterful printing technique are quite remarkable, as you can see:

Dead Link Removed

Edit: Looks like John beat me to the Rofle Horn Link

 

[juan]

There are a lot of "how does Michael Kenna get this look" threads on APUG. You won't know unless you look at the Rofle Horn link - it's not all of the answers, but all of the dodging and burning answer a lot of the questions.
juan

 

[batwister]

The first picture and the one of the tree definitely look like Holga images - since the article is on a Holga site, I'm guessing most of them might be. The characteristic 'fuzzy' bokeh in those pictures gives it away more than the vignetting - look at the sand in the elephant picture and the wall in the tree image. The picture of the bird may well be Holga too, but only the bottom edges look burned in. So Holga + burning.

 

[wildbill]

hmmm. I guess me saying it once wasn't enough. where's the dep't of redundancy.

 

[jovo]

Bill, it's the Department of Redundancy Department, Dept. and a fine one it is! This video shows him with his Holgablad! ;-))

http://www.michaelkenna.net/interviews/hokkaido_j.html

 

[ann]

We used to call in pulling in the edges, one would burn in each edge (slightly)so that people's eye wouldn't wander out of the "frame" . Usually , it is very slight and most are aware. However, everyone has their own vision about how they want their to be viewed.

Along the lines of redundancy, I have reached a point I rarely make suggestions are comments because at least 5 other people are going to repeat the information so I just move on

 

[nwilkins]

hmmm. I guess me saying it once wasn't enough. where's the dep't of redundancy.

He probably used a Holga for that picture. What do you think, wildbill?

 

[JBrunner]

He probably used a Holga for that picture. What do you think, wildbill?

Maybe a Holga?

 

[batwister]

wildbill, please start a new thread if you insist on talking about the Hassel... Oh, sorry.

 

[mporter012]

Thanks for the info. From what I understand, Kenna does use a Holga for fun on occasion, but he mainly uses Hasselblad and many, many of his images have the darker edges.

 

[jvo]

i want...

a holgablad

jvo

 

[Michael W]

I haven't read the entire thread, but I'd say he's using a Holga and perhaps doing some edge darkening in printing.

 

[JBrunner]

All joking aside, he's got some sick darkroom skills.

 

[bsdunek]

Bill, it's the Department of Redundancy Department, Dept. and a fine one it is! This video shows him with his Holgablad! ;-))

http://www.michaelkenna.net/interviews/hokkaido_j.html

Just love the beginning of that video. Trudging through a snowstorm with his camera. It's beautiful.
Wife and I are going to Michigan's UP this weekend, which we do often. Hope for similar conditions for photography. I'll be using a Mamiya Super 23 and a Holga.